A Collaborative Initiative with:

Art Sanctuary, Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Opera Company of Philadelphia, and Philadelphia Young Playwrights

In 2007 North Stars afterschool students wrote spoken-word poems that were given to classically-trained composers to set to music that fused hip-hop and operatic genres. The pieces were workshopped with the young librettists, and then performed, first as poetry by the teens, then in musical form by opera singers, a string quartet, a pianist, and intergenerational chorus. Hip-H’Opera sold out two local performances.  Highlights were broadcast on WHYY-TV and one of the pieces went to the state capital for PA Council on the Arts’ Poetry Out Loud.

So the project grew.  Now, in the first of a three-phase project, Hip H’Opera takes teaching artists and workshops to more than 100 students and their teachers in three schools.  They learn the history and aesthetics of hip hop and opera, genres that use the human voice to tell profound stories.  Then they write; using poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, these students capture the urban stories that they believe need to be told.

We are thrilled to have the Houston Grand Opera as a new partner for the project, which we expect will become a national model for bridging genres and bringing new energy to inner-city music study.

Coming up: Phase II, in which students who choose will come out of the classroom to participate in field trips, small group sessions, and classes with master artists and professionals, to see close up what it really takes to “create art.”

Finally, in Phase III, as in the original song cycle, professionals will craft the students’ work into an opera for production at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. Students will have an opportunity to work with a librettist, dramaturge, producer, composer, and choreographer while mounting the final production. They will also be involved in such technical areas as set design and costuming for the premiere, expected in 2013.